Course Title: New Media 1: Perspectives
Semester: Fall 2008
Semester Hours: 3
Course #: NMC*101
CRN#: 3228
Meeting Times: MW 10:10-11:35 AM
Room: 6-201
INSTRUCTORS
Ersinghaus, Timmons
CONTACT AND OFFICE HOURS
Steve Ersinghaus
Office: F19
Phone: 255.3647
Email: sersinghaus@txcc.commnet.edu
Office Hours: TBA
Course Weblog
John Timmons
Office: F1
Phone: 255.3742
Email: jtimmons@txcc.commnet.edu
Office Hours: TBA
REQUIRED TEXTS
Scott McCloud, “Understanding Comics”
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Surveys the roles and relationships between film, games, short stories, web design, visual art and other forms of traditional and digital media. Students will study the evolving roles of communication technology, media concepts and terminology, developing a body of knowledge about narrative types, design and production techniques, and the nature of collaboration as fundamental to new media.
ATTENDANCE
As with any college course, attendance is critical to keeping up with assignments, material, and discussion, and with maintaining a coherent learning experience. New Media 1: Perspective covers lots of ground and too many missed classes, 4 at most, will result in gaps in knowledge.
ABILITIES
Assessed Course Abilities:
Area: New Media Literacy
1. Identify and describe the types of narrative made possible by traditional and new media
2. Identify and describe new media principles and concepts
3. Describe the interrelated qualities of traditional and new media environments
Area: Project Building
4. Apply fundamental new media concepts to the development of projects;
Assessed General Education Abilities:
Communication:
1.1 Effectively communicates thoughts and ideas in writing
1.1.1 Level 1: communicates effectively in writing
Critical Thinking
2.2. Identifies and analyzes relationships
2.2.1. Level 1: identifies and describes relationships
Technological Literacy
4.1. Uses software applications effectively and purposefully
4.1.1. Level 1: uses a computer and the appropriate software to create a document in the appropriate digital file format
4.2. Assesses the potentials and limitations of technology
4.2.1. Level 1: assesses the appropriate use of technology to accomplish a specific task
Aesthetic Engagement and Creative Expression
6.Evaluates and applies creative processes
6.1.1 Level 1: assesses own creativity
EVALUATION
Students will generate assignments evaluated against the course and general education abilities. All of these will be included in a portfolio. In addition to the portfolio, students will maintain a journal. See descriptions of the journal and portfolio below.
Evaluated Assignments:
Forms of News, due Sept 15
Mapping Space, Nov 22
Hypertext, Nov 29
Interactive Fiction, due Oct 27
Digital Story, Nov 10
Game Project, Dec 15
The Portfolio: Includes all revised assignments published on your weblog
The Journal: Evaluated several times a semester. See Course Calendar for due dates.
GRADING SCALE
A = 94 to 100
A- = 90 to 93
B+ = 87 to 89
B = 84 to 86
B- = 80 to 83
C+ = 77 to 79
C = 74 to 76
C- = 70 to 73
D+ = 67 to 69
D = 64 to 66
D- = 60 to 63
Ability Equivalents:
0- No Demonstrated Achievement 0-49 0 = 49
1- Minimal Achievement 50-69 1- = 50, 1 = 60, 1+ = 69
2- Satisfactory Achievement 70-89 2- = 70, 2 = 79, 2+ = 89
3- Excellent Achievement 90-100 3- = 90, 3 = 95, 3+ = 100
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
During the course of the semester, students might want to experience works from the list below. Some of these will be mentioned on the syllabus as relevant to a particular topic. Excerpts of these works may be required, while the work in its entirety may be experienced over a weekend. For instance, a computer game or simulation such as Syberia and The Sims would be difficult to complete in a semester.
Films: The Godfather, Sliding Doors, Groundhog Day, Minority Report, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Garden State, 12 Monkeys, Lone Star, Final Destination 3 (Special Feature DVD).
Games: Monopoly, Life, Syberia I and II, Doom, The Sims, Myst, Civilization, Half-Life 2.
Stories and novels: The Diamond Age, Hopscotch, afternoon, a story,
Sequential Art: Moore and Gibbons, Watchmen, Moore et al, Tomorrow Stories Book 1, Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
SOME IDEAS
Today the fundamental concepts and tools of new media, such as laptop computers and networks, are influencing nearly all areas of life. They influence the way we build buildings (where are the broadband cables threaded?), entertain ourselves, market products, conduct business, teach, tell stories, collaborate, and create works of art. Education, entertainment, business, communications, science, engineering, the creative arts–all are influenced by and are influencing digital computing and expression. No matter what your plans for the future, some aspect of new and traditional media will play a role; you may even be considering a career in a new media field.
New Media 1: Perspectives, in a lot of ways, is about definitions and questions. “What is new media?” is just one of them. Here are a few more: What are the criteria that we use to define new media; what characteristics do new media and traditional media share: that is, how is a film related to a game? Moreover, how do the narrative structures of new and traditional media shape the way we interpret them?
In this course your instructors will be coming at the idea and forms of new media from a lot of directions, one of the most important being a continual reflection on what has come before and what is still influencing contemporary communications, creative production, art, business, how people work together to shape understandable and meaningful media experiences, and how past and current work in art, games, film, business, design, architecture, and programming may guide our thinking about the future. It should be an interesting tour.
INCOMPLETES
Requests for an incomplete must meet the college’s criteria (see below) and must be put to me in writing one week prior to the end of the semester (no later than Tuesday, July 6) and an Incomplete Grade Agreement completed by Thursday, July 8.
ÒIncomplete grades may be given when the instructor determines that the student has completed 80 percent of the course work or when extraordinary circumstances have arisen which prevent the student from completing course requirements within the prescribed time limits. It is the student’s responsibility to arrange with the instructor the conditions under which an incomplete will be made up. Additionally, the student and instructor must sign an Incomplete Grade Agreement, available in the Records Office that identifies the specific work to be completed. The agreement must be filed in the Records Office.
An incomplete must be made up by the end of the fourth week of the following full semester (fall or spring). Deadline dates appear in the Calendar portion of course catalogs and on the Tunxis Web site.
An incomplete that is not made up within the time limits set above will be converted to an “F” grade at the end of the following fall or spring semester.”
ACADEMIC HONESTY
One of the greatest sins that can be committed in education is an act of plagiarism:
Òn 1: a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work 2: the act of plagiarizing; taking someone’s words or ideas as if they were your own”
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University
(http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=plagiarism)
Anyone caught plagiarizing in this course will face one of the following penalties (based upon my determination of the seriousness of the offense):
A warning and a grade of “0″ or “F” for that assignment;
A grade of “0″ or “F” for the course;
Disciplinary action by the Dean of Student Services and/or the Dean of Academic Affairs.
If you choose to include quotes from the work of others be sure to properly cite the source. At least do the following:
Put the quote within double quotations;
Cite your source within parentheses (author, book, and page number or the address of the Web site).
Example:
“The convenience of merely pressing the button resulted in a deluge of largely unexceptional pictures.” (Rosenblum, A World History of Photography, 3rd Edition, page 259)
For more information about properly citing sources contact the Tunxis Library.
The instructors reserve the right to edit or modify this syllabus at any time.
New Media One: Perspectives - Fall 2008